Following the successful launch of the film adaptation of Star Sand by Roger Pulvers in Japan, Balestier Press has snapped up the Red Circle author’s latest novel entitled LIV.

LIV, which will be published in 2018, is a historical mystery set in Australia in 1975 and Tokyo in 1945.

Balestier Press, headquartered in London, publishes “the best and most original voices in Contemporary World Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences”.

With offices in Singapore as well as in London The Press has a strong Asian focus and has published leading Japanese and Chinese authors in translation including: Riku And the Kingdom of White by Red Circle author Randy Taguchi in September 2016 and the award winning Young Adult novel The Ventriloquist’s Daughter by Lin Man-Chui in 2017.

Book Synopsis:

Liv Grimstad is riding on a suburban train in Sydney, Australia in 1975 when she takes notice of the old man sitting opposite her. Though his features are different, she recognizes that man by the piercing look in his cornflower-blue eyes.

She is convinced it is Donald Meissner, the man who has haunted her memory since they both worked at the German Embassy in Tokyo during the war. He was the beast who tormented and persecuted people, sending them into the hands of the Japanese Military Police.

She does not confront him at first but rather sets out on a journey of detective work to uncover this man. She is convinced he is posing as Donald Miles who somehow escaped retribution after the war. Her journey involves his wife, daughter and granddaughter, among others.

With flashbacks to wartime Tokyo that tell a tender love story between Liv and her German fiancé Martin (one of Meissner’s victims), LIV is a novel that probes the theme: How can one confront evil without becoming evil oneself?

It is not until the end that we learn the truth about these two people – “Donald Miles” and Liv Bang (her real name) – and how the fates of all of us, however good or bad, are bound together.

LIV is a personal detective story and thrilling historical mystery set in Australia in 1975 and Tokyo in 1945. But it tells a universal tale about how the past bears on our present … and future.

About Red Circle:

Red Circle Authors Limited is a specialist publishing and communications company that conducts bespoke projects on behalf of a carefully selected and curated group of leading Japanese authors. Red Circle showcases Japan’s best creative writing. For more information on Red Circle, Japanese literature, and Red Circle authors please visit: www.redcircleauthors.com.

About Roger Pulvers:

Roger Pulvers is an author, playwright, theatre director, and translator. He has published more than 50 books in Japanese and English, including novels, essays, plays, and poetry. Helping make Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and befriending David Bowie brought him back to Japan and inspired him to become the award-winning and prolific author, playwright, film director he is today. His recent novel, Hoshizuna Monogatari (Star Sand), which he wrote in Japanese, was published by Kodansha, Japan’s largest publisher, in 2015 and subsequently in English and French in 2016 and 2017 respectively. It was released as a film, directed by him, in 2017.